DISABILITIES

By Daniel J. Vance

This columnist twice has featured Juliette Rizzo: seven months prior to and immediately after her coronation as Ms. Wheelchair America 2005 last July in Richmond, Virginia. Truly, the Ms. Wheelchair America organization has a superb representative.

It wasn't a beauty contest. Juliette was judged on public speaking skills, personal accomplishments, and self perception, and instantly became a national spokesperson for people with disabilities.

The 36-year-old Rizzo works in Washington D.C. as a special assistant for communications in the Office of the Secretary, Office of Internal Communications, U.S. Department of Education. The Governor of Maryland recently appointed her to the Maryland Commission on Individuals with Disabilities. She earned her Masters in journalism from the University of North Texas.

Using a wheelchair, she has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) and other types of arthritis. The Arthritis Foundation website says that JRA often involves joint inflammation, stiffness, damage and/or an alteration or change in growth. She also has a disease causing hardening of skin and blood vessels, scleroderma; and she has fibromyalgia, a syndrome characterized by generalized pain in muscles, ligaments and tendons.

"As Ms. Wheelchair America, I appeared at Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, the Rose Bowl, and Med Trade, the world's largest home healthcare tradeshow," she said recently over the telephone. "Lately I attended two inaugural balls, one of the greatest things I've ever experienced. I had VIP tickets next to the Presidential viewing stand during the Inaugural parade."

At public events she raises awareness of her platform, "Power through participation for people with disabilities."

She said, "The inauguration was a mainstream setting in which you normally don't see many people with disabilities, especially those not dancing at a ball. But everyone wanted a picture with me. Most exciting was meeting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a female role model, and a fellow 'Italian,' Rudy Giuliani."

Juliette has had to turn down speaking invitations from a number of disability-related and mainstream organizations. Many organizations don't have the funds to sponsor her. When traveling, she must bring along a personal attendant, which doubles her costs. She hasn't any wardrobe sponsors, so she must pay for that out of pocket, too. American Airlines and Giant Foods have helped her.

She said, "I'd love to raise enough financial support to truly legitimize the role to its fullest potential."

If you are interested in helping Juliette, you can reach her through mswheelchairamerica2005@comcast.net

For more, see www.danieljvance.com or www.mswheelchairamerica.org